The right to internet access: foreign experience of legal regulation

Abstract

The article is devoted to outlining certain aspects of the legal regulation of the right to Internet access throughthe prism of foreign experience. The issues of regulation of the right to Internet access in the normative acts of in-dividual states are analyzed. The specifics of the obligations of the state and providers of relevant services that existin the context of ensuring the right to Internet access are determined.The author emphasizes that the role of the state in terms of providing access to the Internet also involves properinteraction with service providers, assisting them through regulatory and institutional mechanisms. Whereas thequality of providing access to the Internet largely depends on the coordinated cooperation of the state with provid-ers. In addition, attention is drawn to cases where states block certain web resources and impose certain restrictionson access to the Internet.The author concludes that the right to Internet access, despite its recognition as necessary in terms of the needsof modern mankind and the current state of technology, remains largely complicated in the direction of its imple-mentation in practice. After all, the state is obliged to provide unhindered (except for exceptions established by law)and quality access to the Internet, and service providers – to provide appropriate Internet access in accordance withmodern technologies and conditions specified in the contract with users.Therefore, the complexity of such obligations is due to two aspects: first, the need for legal, institutional andtechnical access to the Internet, which requires financial, material and technical and other resources; secondly, the presence in a number of countries (for example, in China, Muslim countries) of significant restrictions on access to the Internet for reasons of national security, religious attitudes, ideology, etc.